Jose Antonio Reyes has quickly moved to completely deny wanting to leave Arsenal for the crumbling shambles that is Real Madrid.

Jose clarifies:

"I don't know where these words have come from.

But what I would like to say is that I am very happy at Arsenal. At the moment we are all training hard in preparation for the new season and I am excited about not only playing at Emirates Stadium but also helping Arsenal to challenge for honours."

So that's that then.

It seems as though there are certain parts of the press who are either intent on causing disruption at Arsenal, or on finally seeing an Arsenal player go to Real Madrid.

You decide.

Reyes has decided that he just can't put up with life in England anymore, and appears to be demanding a move to Real Madrid.

He's apparently said, amongst other things:

"I have always said that I want to return to Spain."

"I've nothing against Arsenal, but they know I have never adapted to life in England. Neither the climate nor the language has come easy."

"If Real Madrid want me then that is marvellous."

Well... that was certainly out of the blue.

The obvious suggestion is that Baptista would be part of any deal, but first of all he wants to stay in Spain, and secondly, I hope he doesn't because I don't think he's good enough for Arsenal or even the Premiership for that matter.

With Barca seemingly still keen to sell Saviola off and Arsenal's earlier reported interest, it doesn't look like there would be much difficulty in sorting out a deal at the kind of price that Arsene likes to shop at for a player of Saviola's abilities.

I'm not quite sure what to make of Reyes' desperate plea to leave. He's never been one of my favourite players since THAT phone hoax, and even though he's always appeard to put the effort in, he's never really justified his price since he's been here.

The way see it, he's a player with potential rather than an established one, so as far as I'm concerned his football won't be missed much, if at all.

Why try and keep him against his will anyway? If England really does make him so unhappy, how is he ever going to develop properly both on and off the pitch?

Cesc's agent has confirmed what almost everyone with a brain knew anyway, and that is:

"Cesc is staying at Arsenal, they wouldn't sell him for a hundred million euros, it's not a blow for Cesc, nor for his family, nor for me; quite the opposite, it's a source of pride.

We are very thankful to Arsenal who are part of Cesc's life, just like Barcelona.

We are not the kind of player or agent who would try to force their exit from a club.

We would never try to stab in the back a club (Arsenal) who have done so much for Cesc."

DID YOU HEAR THAT MADRID!?

DID YOU HEAR THAT MARCA!?


Not that this will make any difference though...

They'll just be back next year after Capello walks out for the second time and they need to cheer the fans up.

In fact, the more summers that pass and they don't manage to land one of Arsenal's best players, the more desperate they will probably become to do it!


Anyway, it also appears (as I suspected) that Arsene isn't interested in Ribery at all, after his agent seemed to be indicating that he's going nowhere this year.

He's a good player, but I don't think that he'd add enough to the side for Arsene to consider paying the double figures of millions that he will doubtless cost after his world cup displays.

Plus, I also think that there's a 1 in, 1 out policy at the moment, so with Aliadiare coming back from loan, expect a defender and that's yer lot!


You heard it here first!

YES!

I'm back again.

Had a bit of a mid-20s crisis, but I'm back!

Loads to write, loads to catch up on, loads to moan about...

But as a starter I was just thinking about the latest rumours, and it got me thinking about formations and tactics etc.

I came up with this as possibly the best formation:



Or at least what I think Arsene will go for as his best formation.

So where does Saviola fit in?

Where will this leave Adebayor?

Was he just a waste of £8m??

Maybe it's all just agent speak.